Irvine: Traditions

Charter students at Irvine established their first
tradition soon after the opening of the campus in fall, 1965, by
spontaneously adopting the yell "ZOT" each time the highly successful
water polo team of that first intercollegiate season made a goal.
The yell was attributed to the anteater in the popular newspaper
cartoon strip "B.C.," whose tongue made such a sound when impacting
its prey. The student body later in the quarter officially adopted
Anteaters as the campus mascot by a 56 per cent majority vote over
other entries such as Bison, Roadrunners, Seahawks, and Toros. The
off-campus student newspaper Spectrum later noted that the
creature depicted in the cartoon strip was actually an ant bear.